Paint rippling water in oils

Discover the best way to create rippling water effects in oils, including how to master reflections.

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When you're painting rippling water with something in it, you’re taking on the task of painting a disrupted reflection. This can be tricky to imagine, so I often like to make my own reference before I start.

01. Make some reference

My homemade reference used a toy, some water and a palette

I use a mirror, my palette and a toy and I stir the water to get the ripples and then take a photograph to work from. You can also leave your reference next to you if you can, in order to experiment with different water effects.

Once your reference is made, you're ready to go...

02. Start with the dark colours

I start with the darks of the water as my base. When you're working in oils, you usually work from dark to light anyway, so this is a natural approach. You can work thin and with your more transparent hues. Your transparent colours will be Indian Yellow, Oxides (red, orange, yellow, and brown are a few I use), Viridian, Alizarin Crimson, Phthalo Blue and Ultramarine, to name a few.

A reflection will tend to be darker than the object being reflected. The shadows from objects will similarly have some reflection but will usually make what’s below the water visible, and the values are usually darker as well. You can have fun with this stage and get all those dark and saturated colours mixed around. Let this dry (if you’re working en plein air, you should work thin).

03. Add the light colours

In this oil painting of Tristan and Isolde, Aaron Miller captured rippled water with a limited palette, locking in his value ranges

When you start on the lighter colour, the reflection of the sky, it’s best to premix the gradient. It makes the decision about which colours to pick easier! In areas where there is contrasting detail, choose one to focus on and consider painting back into the sky reflection with the shadow colours. To create the ripples in the painting, it’s much easier to paint the gradient of the reflected sky over most of the area and paint the darks back in again.